Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation. -Walt Disney
Brendan throughout the day had been called by Lizzie numerous times, but he always denied the calls. He wasn't sure why, but he just wasn't up to talking with her. He instead went over to Frank's to help with his laundry, to get more groceries, and order more prescribed meds to help with his condition. It was like any ordinary Saturday afternoon for them. However, there was something different about Frank. He was more active, more prone to smile than usual. Even if he wasn't smiling, you could assume that he would in seconds. His body was also more excited, as he twitched his foot rapidly, as if he were stomping on a foot pedal of a drum set to an allegro. It was very strange to Brendan, considering this was the first time he's ever encountered such behavior from his brother in a long time. He asked him if he was feeling alright, or if it hurt him at all. Frank denied any pain from the movement, claiming that "it doesn't even register as pain." Brendan went along with it but thought to keep an eye on it. For all he knew, it could be a sign that a seizure was eminent, and he would have to call an ambulance. God, I hope I don't have to do that.
"Are you okay after last night?" Frank asked, hoping to hear some good news. Brendan hummed for a moment, thinking about how he should answer. "Uhh... yeah. I think so" he answered.
"Okay, cause' I thought you were going to do something crazy."
"Well, I did trash my place a bit" Brendan answered, but nothing too serious."
"You trashed it how?"
"Just threw things around, broke some glass, and dented the walls a bit." Brendan spoke normally, as if it was nothing to fret about. Frank let the excuse go by, but he had been sensing that something else had happened. One that Brendan didn't know about and probably didn't mean to happen. It had been on his mind since that foot thumping rabbit made itself comfortable on his windowsill. In fact, the same rabbit was still hanging about in the yard, nibbling away in a blanket of clovers and blossoms. Occasionally, it would check-in on the two brothers to see what was happening.
"Do you think you're hate for Disney has calmed down?" There was silence for a moment, a silence that was normal with all the little background noises of the neighborhood filling the air. It wasn't a cold silence where one knew they had been caught of something. More like the silence of thought and reflection. "A little" Brendan answered, not showing much interest in the question.
"I only ask cause' I saw the news this morning about what's going on at the park." Brendan sighed and slightly rolled his eyes, aching for a chance where his workplace would not come up in conversation. "Oh yeah, that" he replied.
"You don't seem to give much thought about it." Frank probed, hoping to pick at his mind and learn something from him, if there was anything. "Should I?" he asked back. "Never mind, forget I asked. After all, you are currently in an anti-Disney mood."
"Okay... then why do you bring it up?" Brendan came back with his own question. "Is it so you can try to find someway to help me out of this funk? Cause' I think its going to take a lot more than some inspiring words from you." Brendan was not blind to Frank's intentions. He's always been trying to figure him out in moments where he didn't necessarily want to discuss it. This time, it was pretty easy to pick up on what he was doing, since he they had been talking about it for the past couple visits. "I'm just trying to help, Bren! I can see you battling whatever this is, and I want to help."
"There's nothing you can do. There's nothing anyone can do. It's not like some magical blue fairy or genie is going to pop out of nowhere and fix all my problems."
"You're right! Only you can." Frank spoke with such harshness, as if it was a call out on his incompetence to move on from the things of the past and move onward to create new opportunities. Brendan was shocked at the tone his brother used, as was the rabbit outside, whom came to the window in the hope that things would turn okay.
Suddenly, Frank closed his eyes for a second, turning tired and fuzzy in the head. He moaned at the sensation, but to Brendan, it looked like he was getting frustrated with him. When he opened his eyes, there was a familiar gazing in his eye, as if he was trying to familiarize himself with his surroundings. He looked around the room disillusioned, and when he came to his brother, he looked surprised to see him. "Oh, heh" he chuckled, "Brendan, when did you get here?"
Brendan swallowed whatever comeback he had for Frank's previous statements and reset himself while also feeling the need to leave. "I've actually been here a while, pal" he said. "You have?" Frank answered sadly. "Yeah, but now I have to go."
"Oh, don't go. Can't you stay a while?"
"I'm sorry, Frank... but I gotta go." He slowly backed away toward the door. "See you soon" he concluded on a low and hoarse note. He turned to the door, leaving a very confused Frank confined to his wheelchair in the living room. "Brendan... Brendan, what's wrong?" Frank called out, but Brendan didn't stop. Frank tried to jerk around in his chair to get his attention, but all he heard in response was the front door opening and closing. "Brendan!" he agonized at the verge of weeping for his brother's sadness. "Come back... come back..."
The rabbit watched from the back door, just as he had done at Brendan's apartment. Seeing an incapable Frank struggle to bring his brother back was heartbreaking. He continued watching as Frank sank back into his chair, breathing heavily. His head flopped over to the side, with streaming from his eyes. They locked eyes again, and the rabbit felt the call to action. "Please... " Frank said softly to him, "help him." Instantly, the rabbit hopped as quick as he could away from the door.
"Help him believe again... "
Meanwhile, while Brendan was walking out to his car, he received another call from Lizzie. He grumbled for a moment before reluctantly answering. "Hello?" "Hey!" she said. She was jut walking into the park to start her shift on the Jungle Cruise. She was thankful that she was able to get a hold of him before she started. "I've been trying to reach you all day."
"Well, you reached me" he replied passively. "You okay?" she asked, "you sound a little irritated."
"I just had a bit of an argument with Frank?"
"Oh... " she thought, "everything good?" She knew Frank was dealing with all the health problems and hoped that Brendan didn't push their argument too far. "I think he'll be fine. His mind switched off midway and he lost any memory of us arguing."
"Poor guy" she said sadly. Brendan didn't say anything as he hoped into his car. He looked back toward the door, hoping Frank was okay. He knew that if had said something, he would have instantly regretted it. So, in a way, he's glad that Frank's mind relapsed. "You okay, otherwise?"
"Eh... " he groaned, remembering all that had happened since he woke up. "I've certainly had better days. It's been weird today: had a bunch of animals peep through my back door, and, I don't know how, but I found myself rhyming." He gave a small smile, still not believing it.
"Huh... weird" was Lizzie's response.
"Yeah, tell me about it."
"Not as weird as all the costumes disappearing at work" she continued, to which Brendan just hissed. "You know, as weird as that was, its was the best part of my day." Lizzie was stunned to hear this. She kind of expected it but figured that it would be at a smaller degree. "Oh, c'mon dude" Lizzie countered, "don't you feel a little sad about it."
"Ha! That's funny" he chuckled, "Frank just asked me the same thing. He thinks I should have given it more of a thought."
"And you don't?" she asked. "Nope. Why should I?" he answered her. "I'm on leave and don't wanna think of that place."
"That's why I called" Lizzie cut in. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay after yesterday."
"What part of yesterday are you talkin about?" he inquired. "The part where Kathy's kid publicly humiliated me, or the part where I embarrassed myself in front of her." A certain sternness in his voice caught Lizzie's attention, making her aware of how he thought of the previous day's events. "You know you're not the only one who's embarrassed, right?"
"How are you embarrassed?" Brendan asked, to which Lizzie quickly corrected him. "No... not me! Kathy!" Brendan sighed heavily, a small growl making its way out as well. He didn't want to hear about how he was the one causing problems to people when his life has had enough problems than he would like. He really didn't want to talk about what he had said, or rather, how he behaved to allow things to escalate to the point that it did. "You really upset her in front of her family."
"Well, I told you something like this would happen" he said, trying to give himself an excuse. "I said things would get complicated if we ever spoke to each other again. And that's exactly what happened."
"I think you went a little past complicated in my opinion" she sassed back, to which Brendan rolled his eyes. "Emotional drama queen is more what I saw."
"From her?" "From you!" she corrected him.
"Well, yesterday was a very bad day for me. So, you'll excuse me if I wasn't my best self" Brendan answered. He hoped that would be enough to sway his friend away from the topic. However, he knew Lizzie would be more persistent that he gave her credit for than what he assumed.
"No, Brendan! It's not just yesterday!" she fired back. "You've been in this mood for a while its starting to become really irritating." Brendan shrunk in the seat of his car, listening to the last friend he had practically ridicule him, when in truth, she was just trying to point out that he hasn't been himself for a while and was trying to help him. "Are you sure something isn't bugging you? Cause everyone at work is saying that you've been acting like a big bully the past few days, and I can see why." Brendan hated to hear this about himself. He believed he was a truthfully good person, only feeling put upon by the circumstances of the past few years, leading to many lingering thoughts that he will never get back to where he was before those circumstances fell upon him. "Don't worry about me" he said softly, but frustrated. "Just... just give me some time alone for a bit."
"Why?" Lizzie came back. "So you can let all the negative thoughts in your head drive you further away from the people who care about you. The people you care about, even?" Brendan halted on his words for a second, really shocked to hear Lizzie say something like that. "I'm not driving people away" he said.
"We didn't talk for weeks until we hung out two days ago" she replied. "How long 'til that happens again?" She wasn't wrong about that. They hadn't seen each other in five weeks before they met up for lunch in Adventureland. Brendan thought she was being selfish. "Hey, I'm not the only one to blame for that. It takes two to make a meeting happen" he argued.
"I'm willing to talk, Brendan" she countered, "the question is are you willing to listen?"
The conversation was getting intense, and to Brendan, there wasn't much else he could think to say. Little did he know that the rabbit from before was listening in on the call. He had crawled into the back seat of the car through the back-side window. Brendan didn't notice due to his mind being solely focused on Lizzie's call. Brendan was about to say something back to her, when the rabbit came hopping toward his head, knocking the phone out of his hand and onto the center console. Brendan jumped at the suddenness of the creature, especially freaking out at the soft fur sweeping across his right cheek. He looked up after realizing that something had hit him, finding the grey, furry creature sitting on his dashboard.
On the other side of the call, Lizzie heard the commotion. She stopped in her tracks, just outside the Cast Member changing room in Adventureland. "Brendan what was that?" she asked. She received no response, only the sound of Brendan yelling at something. "Who are you yelling at?" Then, it sounded like the phone was picked up and dragged at a high speed at a very rocky pace. "Hello... Hello, Brendan...?" she called out, but still no response. Suddenly, the call went dead, and Lizzie stared at the phone oddly. "Okay..." she said and proceeded to enter the Cast Member locker room.
Back at the car, Brendan was shouting at the rabbit that had ambushed him. "Shew! Shew! Get out of my car!" Thankfully, the rabbit did leave the car, but not before it hoped down to the center console and picked up the phone. With the phone now in its mouth, it hoped out the passenger window and down the street. "Hey!" Brendan shouted and exited the car. "Give that back you dirty animal!"
For a moment, the rabbit did stop, but only to scratch behind his ears. He resumed to flee from the angered blonde man as he chased him down the street for a couple blocks. Brendan couldn't believe this was happening. He was chasing a rabbit that had stolen his phone. It wasn't the first thing that he would have thought of when thinking about things that would have disrupted his day, but here he was; chasing down the little cottontail. Eventually, the rabbit gave up the phone and left it alone on the sidewalk in front of a little shop called Kimball's Hobby Shop.
Brendan soon came up on his phone, breathing heavily from traveling so long and trying to keep up. The rabbit was still watching from about ten feet in front of him. Brendan swiped the phone of the ground and looked straight at the creature. Pushing phone in his fist in its direction he declared, "MINE!" The rabbit turns his head to the right a bit and brushes his face with his paws before thumping his foot again. He does it for an extended time, making Brendan confused.
Brendan's phone soon starts to glow a golden light from the screen, growing brighter the longer the rabbit thumps. Brendan soon realizes this look right at the light. "What is this?" He soon covers his eyes to prevent the light from blinding him. The glow becomes so strong that it turns into a beam that rises into the sky. Brendan looks up in amazement, but also looks around to see if anyone around him can see it as well. Sadly, everyone seems to be going about their business, not even noticing the extremely bright light on the streets in the middle of the day. "The hell? How is no one seeing this?" he comments, until the glow starts to spread to Brendan's hand and up his arm and covering his body. Brendan freaks out, even dropping his phone in the hope that it will stop spreading. The rabbit stops thumping and runs away letting what's happening happen. The energy of the light sends strong winds upward, blowing his messy blonde hair in all directions. "What's happening to me?" he screams as the light takes over and he closes his eyes.
Suddenly, the wind settles, and everything seems calm around him. He opens his eyes to find his surrounding very different. The air, objects, and people around him are the color of the glow. Everything is also blurry, not really giving a defined image to his eye. It looked like a dream, or the happy prelude to a terrible nightmare. Almost as if the gate to the afterlife was a golden welcome. "Where am I?" Brendan said, as he didn't know what to do. There was nothing there, except for one thing that stood out in this new environment.
Not far from him was a dazzling stream that lead somewhere, like a path leading traveler to a destination they are not aware of. Brendan knew the path lead somewhere, but he didn't trust it. He looked around for something, or someone, that could help him figure out what to do. He even looked to where he threw his phone, but it was missing. Now with no other options, he figured that the glittering path was his only way of escaping this dream world. He followed the path, stopping and avoiding the blurry images of cars and people passing in front of him. The path eventually came to an end, where a set of entrance doors glowed in gold and orange. The door handles together made the three circles that made up the head of Mickey Mouse, though Brendan didn't notice that detail. He just looked ahead, trying to see through the glass of the door to see what was on the other side. He didn't see anything and feared the only way to see was to open the door and enter. Nervously, he put his hand on the handle, opened the door, and went inside.
Inside, he was welcomed by painted backgrounds of a theater dinner club with red carpets, goldish-yellow walls, and a large dining area with a large stage down the hall. There were plants lining the walls, all in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head. And everywhere he looked (up, down, upside-down, left, right, all in his sight) were many animated and live-action Disney characters. All either racing in with a sense of urgency, moping around with frowns on their faces, or talking with each other.
"What did I just walk into?" he asked himself? Outside the doors, a large sign in red letters read...
"HOUSE OF MOUSE"
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And now your host... the author!!!
Hi, folks. Hope everyone is doing alright out there. Classes are underway online for me, and I'm sure many of you in school are experiencing the new challenges as I am. We can get through this.
Brendan has now become to much of a problem for our characters. So, now lets see how our favorite Disney characters deal with him. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time. Next chapter, you will see how he interacts with the characters he has been despising thus far.
Hope you all enjoyed the chapter and are excited for what's to come. Leave a vote and express your thoughts in the comments. New chapter next month. Until next time, SO LONG EVERYBODY. SEE YA REAL SOON!!!